Sedentism and Mobility in a Social Landscape : Mesa Verde and Beyond /

Sedentism and Mobility in a Social Landscape : Mesa Verde and Beyond /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Varien, Mark.
Imprint:	Tucson : University of Arizona Press, 1999. Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 0000 1999.
Description:	1 online resource (xvi, 276 pages) : illustrations, maps
Language:	English
Series:	Book collections on Project MUSE.
Subject:	Residential mobility -- Colorado -- Mesa Verde National Park. Land settlement patterns, Prehistoric -- Colorado -- Mesa Verde National Park. Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities. Residential mobility. Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities. Land settlement patterns, Prehistoric. Duckfoot Site (Colo.) Sand Canyon Pueblo (Colo.) Colorado -- Sand Canyon Pueblo. Colorado -- Mesa Verde National Park. Colorado -- Duckfoot Site.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/13480344

Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:	Project Muse. distributor.
ISBN:	9780816519040 9780816548811 0816548811 0816519048 0816519048
Notes:	Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Arizona State University. Description based on print version record.
Summary:	Varien's research clearly demonstrates the need to view agriculturalists from a perspective that differs from the hunter-gatherer model. This innovative study shows why current explanations for site abandonment cannot by themselves account for residential mobility and offers valuable insights into the archaeology of small-scale agriculture. Research on hunting and gathering peoples has given anthropologists a long-standing conceptual framework of sedentism and mobility based on seasonality and ecological constraints. This work challenges that position by arguing that mobility is a socially negotiated activity and neither mobility nor sedentism can be understood outside of its social context. Drawing on research in the Mesa Verde region that focuses on communities and households, Mark Varien expands the social, spatial, and temporal scales of archaeological analysis to propose a new model for population movement.

Description
Summary:	Research on hunting and gathering peoples has given anthropologists a long-standing conceptual framework of sedentism and mobility based on seasonality and ecological constraints. This work challenges that position by arguing that mobility is a socially negotiated activity and that neither mobility nor sedentism can be understood outside of its social context. Drawing on research in the Mesa Verde region that focuses on communities and households, Mark Varien expands the social, spatial, and temporal scales of archaeological analysis to propose a new model for population movement. Rather than viewing sedentism and mobility as opposing concepts, he demonstrates that they were separate strategies that were simultaneously employed. Households moved relatively frequently--every one or two generations--but communities persisted in the same location for much longer. Varien shows that individuals and households negotiated their movements in a social landscape structured by these permanent communities. Varien's research clearly demonstrates the need to view agriculturalists from a perspective that differs from the hunter-gatherer model. This innovative study shows why current explanations for site abandonment cannot by themselves account for residential mobility and offers valuable insights into the archaeology of small-scale agriculture.
Item Description:	Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Arizona State University.
Physical Description:	1 online resource (xvi, 276 pages) : illustrations, maps
ISBN:	9780816519040 9780816548811 0816548811 0816519048